Your Family's Traditional Christmas Recipes

[Time_Like_Tears]

I’m sure we’re not the only ones who save certain recipes just for the holidays. Does your family have one you would like to share?

In our family, Mom has kept the tradition of making this delicious breakfast casserole every Christmas morning. This is my first Christmas by myself, but I won’t let it be my first without enjoying some of this stuff! I just hope mine comes out as good as hers does. It should be prepared the night before, and stored in the fridge until you’re ready to cook it in the morning. Not just for Christmas time, this would be great for any breakfast or brunch!

9x13 Pyrex baking dish
1 loaf of day-old French or Italian bread
2 cups half-and-half
6 eggs
1 lb breakfast sausage, hot or mild
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Tear up some bread into small chunks, enough to completely fill the bottom of your baking dish. Brown and crumble the sausage, and scatter it on top of the bread. Top with lots of shredded cheese, you’ll want a nice cheesy crust on top of your finished casserole.

Mix eggs, half-and-half, mustard, and salt together. (The mustard may be tough to incorporate, so I usually make a paste with it and a dollop of the half-and-half first.) Pour egg mixture over the layered ingredients and tilt the dish to make sure it gets in all the corners. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and store in the fridge overnight. The bread will soak up the egg mixture.

When ready to cook, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place casserole uncovered in the oven for 45-50 minutes. The cheese on top should be melty and golden brown. Remove from oven and let the casserole rest for 10 minutes, slice into squares, and serve!

We usually enjoy our Sunrise Casserole with sliced winter melon (Honeydew, Crenshaw, or Canteloupe), orange juice, and coffee.

[Leiko]

Sweet Potatoes Anna! They come out for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Slice (not thick, but not super thin- somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 of an inch) peeled sweet potatoes (the orange kind people call yams and also make into fries) sufficient to fill a tart or pie pan. But don’t put them in yet! Melt half a stick of butter in a pouring-enabling device. Maybe more than half if you don’t mind. Get some thyme out of the garden or grocery store or something. Pour a wee bit of butter (go in a circle so there’s some on the bottom but not lots) and some of the thyme, plus salt and fresh-ground black pepper, into the dish. Layer of sweet potato, butter, salt, and pepper. Layer of sweet potato, butter, salt, pepper, and thyme (use up the rest of the thyme now) and then keep on doing layers. Finish with the rest of the butter and some salt and pepper.

Bake it in the oven at whatever temperature the other stuff is in on. You can put a weighted pan on top to compress it if you like, or leave it uncovered to get crunchy. The amounts don’t matter as long as the butter is top-notch and there’s more black pepper and thyme than there is salt.